47 Kapella
47 Kapella within the Kapella System of the Drusus Marches of the Calixis Sector, near the Blackshine Nebula, is in the process of Imperial pacification as Imperial Guard regiments from the Secundus 21st Expeditionary Force and Brontian 5th "Longknives" slowly complete mopping up operations against a civilian insurrection that overtook most of the planetary government, killing Lord Belin XVIII and virtually all of the leadership. The holy war brewing on 47 Kapella and nearby Protasia has drawn much attention, especially from the Adepta Sororitas. The tattered and blackened remnants of Vunox are scant reminders of the once acclaimed spires of the hive. 'The Purging of Camp 109' The world of 47 Kapella is a war-torn wasteland, every square mile of its surface torn apart by craters and criss-crossed with mile after mile of trench line. When war first came to 47 Kapella, millions were displaced as vast armies clashed against one another, and dozens of huge refugee camps sprung up. Generations later, some of these camps had become cities, vast conurbations of ragged buildings made of the detritus of war and populated by the lost and the damned. It’s no surprise, then, that the Chaos God Nurgle, Lord of Plagues and Despair, reared his scabrous head in one such camp. The malady began when the sick and the desperate of Camp 109 turned their faces from the light of the Emperor and beseeched other, darker powers for deliverance. Deep within the Realm of Chaos, Papa Nurgle heard their pleas and sent forth his myriad gifts to grant them life eternal in his name. The first to receive Nurgle’s gifts were Imperial Guardsmen recovering from wounds sustained at the front line of the war. Their wounds scabbed over and an unnatural vitality flooded through them. Even as their features sloughed into hideous flesh-masks, these converts went forth amongst the populace of Camp 109 and preached to the masses that only by embracing death and despair would they cast off their fear and enter into a new existence. The converts became an order of demagogues, calling themselves the Scourge, and soon they were preaching at every corner, their filth-encrusted robes concealing their faces while their phlegm-ridden voices beseeched any who would listen to follow them into glory. The contagion that the Scourge spread through Camp 109 was not simply one of bodily infection, but of the spirit as well. Those who heeded their sermons found themselves falling ill with dozens of ravenous plagues at once, yet they felt glad to be sick. Soon, established orders were preaching against the Scourge, denouncing them as servants of the archenemy. It was not long before Camp 109 was beset by civil war every bit as destructive as the battles its population had originally fled from. The leaders of each side were the preachers of the various orders. On one side, zealots of a dozen different cults of the Imperial Creed gathered the faithful and led them in assaults against the plague-ridden fanes of the Scourge. On the other, the demagogues of the Scourge rallied their sickly flock and formed them into a fly-infested wave of filth that overcame any who stood before it. When the Scourge launched an attack against an Order Hospitaller field hospital, the situation finally came to the attention of the Imperium’s authorities. The Sisters Hospitaller barely escaped with their lives, and the tales they brought to the Imperial Guard high command convinced the generals that something far worse than a refugee camp riot was afoot. Even as the generals were requesting aid from the Tricorn Palace, the situation inside Camp 109 was growing desperate. The last followers of the true creed were overcome, and the Scourge enacted a terrible rite to the glory of their dark patron. The bloated corpses of their victims split asunder, and from within each a daemon of Nurgle---a Plague Bearer---emerged. Camp 109 became in a single night the center of a stinking web of corruption, which was inexorably seeping across the surface of 47 Kapella. Salvation came to 47 Kapella in the form of Inquisitor Lystug of the Ordo Malleus and his retinue. The Inquisitor’s first thought was to bomb Camp 109 from orbit, ensuring that no trace of its corruption remained. But one of Lystug’s companions, a former member of the Orders Hospitaller, counselled against such a course of action. She advised that the source of the infestation was as much spiritual as it was biological, and would never be purged unless the original host was located and exorcised. Lystug heeded her words, and sought the aid of the Sisters Hospitaller who had fought their way out of the camp before it had been overrun. The sisters agreed to accompany the Inquisitor and his household on a desperate mission: to return to Camp 109, seek out the host, and purge it. The combined force infiltrated the camp the very next day, but soon reports of unexplained sickness afflicting the front line regiments started to trickle in to high command. Realizing that time was short, Lystug abandoned subtlety. Guided by the Sisters Hospitaller, he and his retinue cut their way straight towards the host he knew must reside at the heart of the infestation. The deeper his force penetrated, the more vile the sickness afflicting the camp became. At first, they encountered individual afflicted people, but soon waves of zombie-like followers of the Scourge came at them. While the outer limits of the camp were ragged and stank of corruption, the inner precincts were carpeted with biological matter that reeked with such vile sickness that even the most well-crafted rebreather was incapable of keeping it at bay. It was the Sisters Hospitaller that kept the force moving in such trying conditions, for they exuded a palpable aura of purity that forced back the vile plagues of the enemy, creating a path through which Lystug and his retinue could tread safely. That path led to the very center of Camp 109, where they found the first host waiting for them atop a mountain of bloated, fly-ridden corpses. The host, the very first of the wounded Imperial Guardsmen to have beseeched the Lord of Plague for aid, had become a Daemon Prince of Nurgle, granted apotheosis for the destruction wrought in his master’s name. Lystug ordered his servants to attack, but his words went unheeded as the Sisters Hospitaller stepped forward as one and formed a circle around the vile daemon. Chanting praises to the saints of their healing order, the Adepta Sororitas crippled the servant of Nurgle, purging its bloated, decaying body of contagion so that only a dried, shriveled husk remained. Yet still, the power of Nurgle animated the Daemon Prince’s form. It slew the many of the sisters and attempted to flee. Yet at that moment, Inquisitor Lystug stepped within the circle of purity created by the Sisters Hospitaller and delivered a single, crushing blow. In an instant, the Daemon Prince of Nurgle was struck down and its plagues halted. Only when Lystug and the remaining Sisters were evacuated was Camp 109 destroyed. The cleansing fires of orbital bombardment seared the damned place to ashes, and it remains ruined to this day. Only through the purity of the Sisters Hospitaller and the valor of the Inquisition was 47 Kapella saved from a world-ravaging plague. 'The Admiral Militant' A Rogue Trader by the name of Admiral Dallactarius IV became embroiled in the ongoing pacification of the world of 47 Kapella in the Drusus Marches. In 482.M41 the aid of his fleet was requested when Dallactarius was en route to the Koronus Expanse. The Admiral was known as a particularly belligerent individual and was noted for his impatient nature. The Admiral readily agreed to lend his aid to Imperial forces, yet soon became caught up in what would become a twelve-yearlong war of attrition. By the end of the first decade the Admiral’s not inconsiderable forces had been reduced to only a few dozen warriors of his household guard, yet he battled on regardless, determined to succeed in the face of insurmountable odds. The last recorded sighting of Admiral Dallactarius IV was at the Battle of Hill 44427, reportedly leading an assault on an enemy bunker. A decade later he was finally declared dead, yet those of his household that survived claim to this day that he lives still, punishing the enemies of the Emperor. The Admiral never did reach the Expanse, his diversion proving somewhat more permanent than he, and his now penniless backers, had intended. Category:Calixis Sector Category:Planets Category:Drusus Marches Category:War Worlds Category:Red Links